The Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina (FBCENC), a nonprofit organization that provides food for people at risk of hunger in 34 counties in central and eastern North Carolina, selected LED lighting from Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE) to light its new Raleigh, N.C. distribution and community center. The 85,000 square-foot facility is illuminated by Cree® CXB Series High-Bay LED luminaires, ZR24™ troffers and KR6™ downlights, delivering better light quality while generating nearly 50 percent energy savings compared to traditional options. 

“We searched for the right community partners to help us achieve our goals for this facility,” said Charlie Hale, FBCENC VP of IT and operations. “Cree’s lighting solution provided an opportunity to install something that is not only more energy efficient but avoids maintenance issues while helping improve our operations. The new lighting has provided an enhanced workspace on all fronts, including ensuring that volunteers can see clearly when repackaging and sorting food items. They no longer have to use their cell phone flashlights to properly read the labels.” 

The warehouse of The Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina (FBCENC) lit with LED lights. (All photos courtesy of Cree)

Installed throughout the warehouse, Cree’s CXB Series High-Bay luminaires offer better light quality and uniformity that eliminate hot and cool spots while delivering superior energy efficiency, thus lowering operating costs. Powered by Cree TrueWhite® Technology, the ZR24 troffers are installed throughout the office space to provide a comfortable, well-lit environment with excellent light quality, while the KR6 downlights deliver high-quality light to complete the office lighting.

FBCENC moved its operations, food distribution, and community services to the new location in order to continue serving those facing hunger in Raleigh and the surrounding area. The new distribution and community center allows for expanded services to fight hunger in the Triangle and across central and eastern North Carolina, with more freezer and cooler space for perishable foods, additional room for thousands of hours of increased volunteer time, increased loading dock space to get more food out to neighbors quickly and safely, and upgraded systems, such as the lighting, to increase efficiency.

The seating area illuminated with LED luminaires.

With major renovations in place, the new facility provides additional space for nutrition education and outreach that will help improve food systems throughout its service area so community members can permanently move out of the state of food insecurity. Cree’s lighting is proving to be a key contributor to helping FBCENC effectively spread the word on these enhanced services.

“The new lighting has enabled us to get our story out to the community in a more vibrant fashion than we otherwise could have,” said Jessica Whichard, FBCENC senior manager of communications. “We’ve been shooting quite a few videos inside and the production teams have been really impressed with the lighting. The facility looks just phenomenal in the videos. It has also helped us to enhance our social media presence with higher quality images from volunteers at work. Our facility managers and volunteers, in particular, have commented on how great the lighting is when they walk into the space.”

A sign indicating The Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina.

The Cree CXB Series High-Bay luminaires offer efficiency of up to 113 lumens per watt at CRI of 80+, and the ZR24 troffers produce up to 5000 lumens at CRI of 90.

Please visit http://lighting.cree.com/applications/case-studies/foodbankcenc to read the full case study and view images of the installation.